GAA stars are taking major leap of faith
Defiance of virus rests uneasily on players’ shoulders
THERE’S no ‘ i’ in team but there is in political football. Two in fact, one for each rotating Taoiseach. When Claire Byrne took over the hotseat for RTÉ radio’s flagship magazine show Today back in August, the first guest was the man who would be king, Micheál Martin. That was when Golfgate was the next big rolling news story, when the fall-out from the Oireachtas golf society debacle was the latest hot button issue to have the Fianna Fáil party leader – and current leader of the country – scrambling for some political capital.
No surprise then, that sport, and Gaelic games, fitted into the frame of the conversation with Martin boldly declaring that the Government have ‘saved the Championships and the Leagues’ with the previous announcement that sport had to go behind closed doors.
‘We want the championship to go ahead. I want an All-Ireland this year because I think it would be a symbol that the country is fighting this virus. That it’s not going to surrender to it and I’d love to see the Championship completed. Like all games, League of Ireland, the whole lot, rugby.’
Never mind the bonfire of the vanities element to a politician claiming to have ‘saved’ the season when the GAA’s extensive Return to Play protocols first set a benchmark for the resumption of club games the country over. Even by the time of that studio interview, there were 5.1 million completed answers to the Covid19 questionnaire, which is clicked and ticked when a player trains or plays. The system has covered 91,000 people since the return to play at the tail end of June. That’s before the decision to hold fast and run off Cúl Camps and cater f or 71,000 kids across 1,200 camps.
Last night then was all about whether t h e Government announcement on higher level restrictions – the new Level 4.5376 or Level 5 (or whatever name you wanted to give the latest political compromise) – would rule out elite sport or whether the games in various codes would continue to receive an exemption.
And so the exemption came to pass, via the usual afternoon leaks before official confirmation last night.
At a time when the country is feeling genuinely worried about every aspect of Irish life, it was hard to avoid the sense of Gaelic games – and sport – as a sort of political football. With the All-Ireland hurling championship actually scheduled to start on Saturday, political sliotar might need to be added to the lexicon of the day. That’s before the case is made for Ireland’s Six Nations rugby game against Italy the same day.
While the political mis-steps of the new tri-party government have been well documented, the return of inter- county action at the weekend suggested that maybe Martin had it right after all, various actors on the sporting stage turning up to utter a version of those same lines with hand on heart.
Mickey Harte is someone who understands the weight of things. Losing a daughter in tragic circumstances brought him on a journey where he spent time in the company of the Dalai Lama and acted as a willing councillor to plenty of others grieving a loved one. So he doesn’t need to be told about where sport fits into the bigger picture or whether a bit of perspective is needed when it comes to sport.
‘I hope there is a Championship – as long as it is safe to do so. The public at large need an autumn of good football. They’ll get that whatever teams are in it. They’ll get excitement, they’ll get entertainment and something to turn their minds from this Covid business. People enjoy their football. They need something to look forward to. It would be a pity to take that away.’
His testimony was echoed all around the country. By Monaghan manager Seamus McEnaney or scorer-in- chief Conor McManus. By Kerry manager Peter Keane who runs a local supermarket in Killorglin and could hardly be more embedded in the community.
The value of the weekend in the return of inter- county Gaelic games, from senior to minor, was a constant running theme from the participants, providing a welcome distraction too for so many sets of supporters.
Witness Donegal versus Tyrone and the coming together of Michael Murphy and Conor McKenna, like two of the earth’s tectonic plates colliding.
Or the stunning photograph captured by Ciara Buckley of Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea, so high up as to be on the shoulders of Galway full-back Séan Andy Ó Ceallaigh. Already turning into a meme with one clever online account rethreading the same image to show the Breaffy man reaching to place an angel on the top of a huge Christmas tree.
As David Brady implored on social media: ‘Over this weekend GAA players are not just representing their county but they are representing hope, creating conversation and giving so many people across this island a positive focus regardless of results or allegiance. Let’s take one step at a time and always put the players 1st.’
This from the former Mayo player who received an official note of thanks from President Michael D Higgins for his ‘It’s Good to Talk – GAA’ initiative that shows how a movement can start with one person.
Nothing about what happens next though is straightforward.
If the level of cases remains so high, it rightly threatens sport where the wisdom of bringing a squad and management of 50 different bubbles together has to be questioned, even in the highly controlled settings of an intercounty environment.
And there is a difference in mood emerging between the divisions and top tier of All-Ireland contenders and those not in the shake-up. I bumped into John Costello at the gates of Parnell Park on Saturday night and he was clearly buoyed by the senior team being back on the field and being able to host Meath.
LEITRIM chairman Enda Stenson and Louth chairman Peter Fitzpatrick though are two of those who have gone public with their questioning of the inter- county resumption and any winter AllIreland after Covid-related issues saw Leitrim forfeit their Division 3 League game against Down on Saturday.
Louth captain Bevan Duffy raised some serious questions around testing and participation to LMFM radio after the Wee County players faced a long road trip to Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunbefore being hammered 5-19 to 0-16 – and then faced the long journey home.
‘I don’t understand, with the case numbers going up, the way things are all around the country, how GAA inter-county footballers are all of a sudden immune to this. We’ve teachers in that dressing room. We’ve lads living at home, a lot of lads living at home with their elderly parents.
‘It doesn’t really make that much sense.
‘There hasn’t been any testing at all, which I can’t get my head around. Surely before the start of the National League campaign every inter-county squad should have been tested. Simple as. That would take a lot of pressure off and put your mind at ease a bit, but you don’t know.
‘What if someone tests positive on either of these squads today next Tuesday? And there are lads after playing a match here in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and then gone back to their homes and back all over Cork and all over Louth. The lack of testing, the zero testing, I just can’t understand it.’
His view chimed with the poll by the Gaelic Players Association last Friday, revealing that 24 per cent of players didn’t want to proceed with the 2020 season. It prompted the GPA to call for stronger testing protocols.
Meanwhile, for now, the intercounty show is set to go on with the final round of football league games down for this weekend, along with the launch of the AllIreland hurling championships.
A political football or symbol of the country fighting the virus…